Little Games
by songbird'ssmile
Summary: "This is all a game to you then…?" "Yes" "Then forgive me for trying my best to win" "I expect nothing less, Darling." A tale of Wendy and Peter Pan, Dark-ish!
1. Chapter 1

**Little Games**

**Disclaimer: do not own OUAT and all mistakes are mine...**

**Chapter 1:** **Changing the Game**

"What's the matter, Darling…?" It's been less than a week since he's brought her to the cage, days since he's locked her in it, and hours since he's returned to taunt her.

"Aw, you're no fun anymore, Wendy…" He presses his face to the side of the cage, peering in at her. She takes the opportunity to spit in it.

He backs away the ever present smirk lingering on his features as he wipes her saliva from his cheek.

"You locked me in a cage, Peter, there is nothing fun about this," she glares at him through the gaps in the bamboo.

"As I recall, I did not lock you in; I offered to leave the door open and you preferred it shut." He strides away from the cage standing with all the charisma of a tyrant.

"That was after you decided to hang the cage from a tree!" She shouts accusingly.

"Now, now I put you back on the ground, besides you used to love flying…" He smiles at her as if he knows everything about her, and perhaps he does; she's been her long enough.

"You're a bastard." She states bluntly.

"Well aren't those dirty words for a pretty mouth like yours" his words have an edge to him but they always do when she starts with this dangerous game of hers.

"Hardly dirty, if used in the right context…" she replies and it is her who is smiling this time a smile Peter so rarely see grace her face. He loves it and he should; it's crafted after his own.

"And how would you ever know if it was the right context…" he asks knowing full well with her it's all innocent, innocent fun. Still in the back of his mind the danger of her knowing his secrets looms.

"So were back to playing games I see…"he states, making light of the situation as always.

"Well guessing games were always your favorite." She matches him tit for tat, always has, but she gotten better at it in recent years. Time's given her time to think and even on the island there are some things he can never know.

"Only when the subject is someone else, Darling" he calls her that pet name of his, both her name and the touch of something else he'd rather not say.

"Well you already know everything about me, It'd be no fun…" she states coyly.

"See, Wendy, I told you we could still have fun, even with you all locked up…" he throws up his hands in her direction willing to humor her this time. (much like the last and the one before it.)

"We always do… Orphan?" She is speaking sweetly now, like she did as a child but it's forced now. Even in a land where you never grow up innocence has faded from her. To her assertion his face is and unreadable mask, as if he's expecting the blow.

"We've played this game before, Darling, I always win." He turns to her moving back toward the cage ready to play.

"Well do we have eternity, Peter; someday I'll have the upper hand." She states, a subtle confidence growing behind her words.

"If that's the hope you cling to so be it; I rather like our games." He isn't sure where she is going with this; usually she's taken another guess by this point.

"This is still all a game to you, Peter?" her voice takes an unusually serious tone to it that he is not familiar with; nevertheless he replies.

"Yes."

"Then forgive me for trying my best to win"

Wendy leans towards the edge of the cage as if she was going to spit in his face again but instead her lips purse and she presses them gently to his.

Peter is shocked for a moment unmoving against her lips before he recoils as if a snake bit him. It almost makes her smile to see shock on his usually smug face. Still it's only a moment before his smug smile is replaced.

"I would expect nothing less, Darling." He says standing and turning to leave, but his posture has changed, something is off. He stands less tall than normal. She's shaken him; she's changed the game and for the first time in years she feels she has the upper hand.

**A/N: It's short. I love the potential of the pairing. There could be more to this but honestly I have no idea where this is going and I have other work to do... : / - Song**


	2. Chapter 2

**Little games**

**Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT and I have difficulties with grammar; don't remind me!**

**Chapter 2 A Playing Piece**

Peter doesn't return to her cage for the next few days and she wonders if she's scared him off. It is beginning to grow quiet dull without him to constantly bicker with.

There is something about the quiet that makes it easy to get lost in own memories. She thinks of a time long before when their games were not as strategic as this, innocent even. She laughs recalling the euphoria of running and playing hide and go seek or tag in the vast forests of Neverland. Then laughs again because there is a certain irony to the situation she finds herself in now. The games haven't changed not really; they are still trying to trap one another but the physical has been conquered. It's all words and talk now.

In the second week she begins to feel the confinement of the cage. It's cramped so she can never really sit fully upright or lie down flat. They let her out at times; so she many eats or go to the bathroom or (if one of the kinder lost boys is on guard duty) stretch. Still it's always "back to that cage Wendy." She knows she could run if she wanted to, but there's no real way off the island without Peter's consent. Besides that's not the game they are playing.

So she doesn't run; she stays in her cage and plans her next move.

In time she begins to pick at the bamboo of the cage fraying off pieces and making little dolls or bracelets with the pieces. They scatter on the floor and it makes it difficult to sleep; but while she's at it, it keeps her from complete boredom. Then one day she fashions basket; it's so small it barely fits over her fingertip but she knows immediately what it looks like. She wants to laugh and cry at the sweet memory bound to it but in the end she just tosses it to the floor of the cage like all the others.

She doesn't play with the fray much more after that.

After that she focuses on watching the foliage the only thing on the island to ever change, until one day she see something in the shadows. The Lost boys who are supposed to be watching her hardly notice it or perhaps they don't care. It's most likely the latter.

But she is sure of it the next time it happens that the trees are moving without a wind or creature to rustle them.

Suddenly her eyes go wide in understanding.

"I know it's you shadow!" she calls out pressing her face to the bars of her cage. "There's no need to hide…" The shadow floats up from the ground flickering for a moment before attempting to manifest itself into the one person she doesn't want to think about at the moment.

"Or disguise yourself as him…" she adds and the shadow stops and turns back into darkness.

"You were always the better half of him, anyways." She says watching the phantom creature drift towards her with interest.

"Plus you don't have that smile of his, at least not that I can see." Peter's shadow hasn't visited her since she's been locked up. Wendy thought it was strange; the severed entity was always as much of her friend as Peter himself.

"I know you can talk, say what you want must." She stares into the mass of swirling matter. The hollowness of the figure used to scare her, now it seemed more comforting than the hollow boy it was a silhouette of.

"He'll know all I say." rasps the shadow in a mere wisp of a voice.

"I should hope so, you are as much of a part of him as he is of you." She replies. Her hand reaches out curiously to touch the gray mist and feeling the soft pull of some strange gravity at her fingertips.

"He is wondering, why you kissed him." states the shadow never one to mince words or turn them into riddles like Peter.

"Why well that seems unusual of him. Doesn't he have things to concern himself with other than me?" she replies wishing confirmation that Peter was going as crazy without her company as she was without his. The shadow turns its blank face to hers as if there were eyes on it to bore into her own.

"Yes and no…' the shadow begins, "The boy…"

Wendy sighs it is always her or him.

"I know of the boy and your quest to find him, but what does that have to do with anything" she says. It is as if Peter only ever thinks of two things causing trouble for her or finding the boy from the picture. Peter always believed himself a god and made no effort to hide it; but the boy and Wendy those were where his faith lay.

"He is here." explains the shadow in a grave tone and her eyes widened.

"Well that certainly changes things; doesn't it?" She tries her best to dismiss her initial shock so it won't catch either the shadow or Peter's attention.

"So you'll stop trying to trouble him…?" asks the shadow hesitantly. Wendy frowns; it is never a cordial visit when it comes to the shadow.

"Hardly, he asked me to try my best and I intend to do so…" she replies curtly.

"His focus is already somewhere else, you shouldn't distract him…" The shadow pleads with her something the real Peter would never do in person.

"If he is distracted; it is his own fault. If you only came here to ask for my silence; I can't give it to you." She retreats into the cage not wanting to look at the shadow of the man too cowardly to come and speak to her about a kiss.

"I didn't imagine you would…" says the shadow, sighing.

Her hand rests on the ground when she feels something in her hand. It's the thimble she'd woven earlier out of frayed bamboo and her next move forms suddenly in her mind.

"In the meantime, you can give our dear friend this," she holds up the thimble, letting the shadow envelop it in its form. The shadow looks at it; it too remembers a day when a much younger Wendy gave Peter a very similar gift. Then it was innocent, now it's merely a playing piece.

"You're playing a dangerous game, Wendy…" the shadow spoke, finally.

"So I've been told." She replied.

**A/N: I am totally ignoring my work but I had to get this out of my system. Still don't know it this is going anywhere... :/ -Song**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 Move**

**I'm sure I'm not the only one that was thrown off by the Pan-Rumpelstiltskin-father thing, but I had to take it under serious consideration whether I could continue with this fict (never mind continue to ship DarlingPan.) I prefer to stay somewhat cannon and this was somewhat creepy. However I have since then come to three conclusions.**

**This is fiction, and all of this is highly improbable and possibly impossible…**

**Pan was already several hundred years older than Wendy anyways; thirty years one way or the other shouldn't make a difference. It's all in the same creep-infested boat. (I ship Rumbelle under the same pretense.)**

**And finally (this is just something to gnaw on)Who says I'm going to keep this DarlingPan?!**

**So yeah on with the fict, I don't own anything (apparently not even my dignity...)**

It doesn't take long for him to respond. The sun barely has time to set, rise, and tumble back up to mid-sky before he is storming into the clearing.

"Dodger! Andrew! You can go. I want a word with our Darling friend…" Wendy smiles as Peter throws open the cage and pulls her out, so she's standing in front of him.

"Wendy, I swear you are going to be the death of me!" the normally composed boy shouts as he grasps her shoulders and forces her to look at him.

"Well that's certainly not the plan but I suppose it would be an added benefit." She states looking back into his eyes without fear. She's known him too long to fear him.

"Wendy, what exactly did you mean by this…" he holds up the make shift thimble and her smile only grows.

"I see you got my little gift," she lifts her hand to take it from him and twirls it on her little finger.

"I did." he spits, "and I would like to know exactly what kind of game you believe you are playing."

"Oh are you not having fun? I thought you loved guessing games…" she places the thimble on the top of his head in almost a childish manner and lifts her hands above her own head to stretch.

"I do but not like this." He brushes the thimble off his head and lets it fall to the ground.

She's moved to working out the kinks in her neck letting her head roll back so she can see his face now behind her.

"Well I'm having fun for once and I won't let you spoil it," she rocks forward onto the balls of her feet, arms in the air like wings.

"You're not the only one that was there when we first met, I was too… We used to be friends, Peter? Or was that all a game as well?" she touches her toes and rises back up; only to under estimate how long it's been since she was last let out. Her leg cramps. She stumbles back into him and on some obscure instinct he catches her.

Their eyes meet, calculating the implications, then after a thought she leans forward to kiss him. He sees the move coming and turns so her lips fall to his cheek. Both pull back at the same time, same surprise on their faces. He's finally caught up with her and her little game. This is dangerous territory and she knows it.

She should end this right now, they are on even ground, and she can't win like this.

But she doesn't, she's a second too late to stand and pull away from his embrace. He picks up the thimble and hands it back to her.

His move.

It's her turn again.

So she sends him away.

"I'll expect you'll be longer now…" she says (a promise, not a plea) going back to her cage of her own accord. She attempts to rectify the situation.

"You'll have other things to attend to with him on the island." She doesn't need to clarify, they both know who she means.

He doesn't respond. He knows not to speak when he's ahead. She has no such qualms; she's never ahead.

"No time for games when you have _official_ business to attend to…" she let mirth flow through her words to mask the sting they bring.

"Official, Darling?" he laughs but there is nothing insincere about his. "There is nothing _official_ here, only games,"

She laughs too, this time willing his smile to erase her doubts. Reality exists only as Peter allows it to, and part of her wants to believe it.

But once he leaves, she is flooded with realization of the lie.

There was a world outside of Neverland, another life with her mother and father and brothers. There was life before Peter; she dreams of it at night (on the nights she does dream). She stopped yearning for it long ago and crying even longer. Now she only cries because there is nothing left of that hope and even that seems pointless.

There is nothing to escape to except the game and now he controls that too.

But not for long she promises herself…

It's time for a tie-breaker.

**A/N: If you're looking for words and typety type stuff it's at the top. And I will update when I get to it or rather when I should be getting to other things… : /**


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